1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image formation processing system provided with an image formation apparatus such as a copy machine, a bookbinding apparatus to make a bundle of sheets from the image formation apparatus and the like to bind, and a post-processing apparatus that performs post-processing such as stapling on the sheets.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, an image formation processing system has been known which forms an image in an image formation portion, transfers the image to a sheet, i.e. prints the image, and performs post-processing such as stapling processing on a bundle of a plurality of sheets with images printed thereon.
For example, an image formation processing system has been disclosed that is integrally provided with an image formation portion that forms an image and transfers the image to a sheet, a stapling processing portion that performs stapling processing on sheets with images transferred in the image formation portion, and a gluing processing portion that performs gluing processing on the sheets with the images transferred thereto.
In the image formation processing system with a plurality of processing portions, the processing time required for each processing portion differs corresponding to the type of processing.
For example, in the stapling processing portion that performs stapling processing on sheets, after the sheets are gathered in the shape of a bundle and aligned, it is possible to immediately staple the sheet bundle and then, immediately convey the sheet bundle to downstream portions. Further, in the stapling processing portion, the staple is limited in its size, limiting the number of sheets to be stapled, and therefore, relatively short time is required to gather the sheets in the shape of a bundle.
In contrast thereto, in the gluing processing portion that performs gluing processing on the sheets, sheets are gathered in the shape of a bundle to form a bundle sheet, glue is applied to an end face of the sheet bundle, and it is not possible to convey the sheet bundle to downstream portions until the applied glue is dried. The processing time is longer than that of the stapling processing portion. Further, in the gluing processing portion, it is possible to glue a larger number of sheets than that of sheets that the stapling processing portion can staple (because of no limitations unlike size in stapling), and therefore, there is a case that the time required to gather sheets in the shape of a bundle is longer than in the stapling processing portion.
The gluing processing portion requiring longer processing time has conventionally been situated on the downstream side of the stapling processing portion, and spaced the furthest from the image formation portion. Therefore, after image formation (image transfer) is finished in the image formation portion, in addition to the net time to perform the gluing processing, extra time is required to complete the gluing processing until the gluing processing is completed, because it is necessary to convey the sheet to the gluing processing portion via the stapling processing portion. In the gluing processing that already requires the longer time for processing therein, adopting such a form of transport purposely via the stapling processing portion delays the gluing operation uselessly, and particularly, a problem arises in the case where bookbinding processing including cutting of sheets and the like is performed in the gluing processing portion.
Further, when a transport path is long from the image formation portion to the gluing processing portion, the risk is increased of occurrences of the so-called jam such that a sheet is blocked during transport, and in this case, not only the gluing processing (or bookbinding processing) is halted, but also all the sheets gathered in the shape of a bundle are wasted. When such a case occurs, as described previously, since the number of sheets enabling the processing (gathering) in the gluing processing portion is generally larger than the number of sheets enabling the processing (gathering) in the stapling processing portion, the number of sheets to be wasted due to the jam is larger also in the gluing processing portion than in the stapling processing portion.